Accidentally in Love
by Silver Flame Alchemist
Summary: AU - If anyone asks, Dean automatically and simultaneously denies it and directs the flow of conversation onto something else entirely. It's stupid to think of the heat in his cheeks and the tightness in his chest as anything even resembling love, and there's just no way Dean Winchester, Playboy Extraordinaire, is falling for his best friend's big sister. - gently Dean/OC -


_This began as a little drabble, about as long as _Let It Bleed_, but then... Then it mutated into the creature you see before you now. XD  
An idea that's been rattling around my head for about a day now, and that I finally got around to putting down on... Well, digital paper._

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If anyone asks, Dean automatically and simultaneously denies it and directs the flow of conversation onto something else entirely. It's stupid to think of the heat in his cheeks and the tightness in his chest as anything even _resembling_ love, and there's just no way _Dean Winchester_, Playboy Extraordinaire, is falling for his best friend's big sister.

She's older than him, she's not his type, and, if he's being brutally honest with himself, she's _way_ out of his league. But there's something about her, something he can't ignore or make go away, something he knows all the other boys who come by the diner can see too, because more than once he's had to deck a kid of mouthing off about what he'd like to do to her.

Of course, he keeps all this to himself, drowning it in giant frosted glasses full of handmade milkshakes (or the smaller, clearer glasses of whiskey that she sneaks him when no one else is looking), and massive slices of pie that she gives him with a positively _blinding _smile.

And he naturally has theories about what makes him react this way, aside from the glow she seems to radiate wherever she goes. He suspects part of it is because she smiles at him whenever their eyes meet across the diner, and always gives his shoulder a gentle squeeze when she delivers his order to the table.

And, okay, _fine_, it might have something to do with the fact that she reminds him a little of his mom when she was younger (what little Dean actually remembers of her from pictures barely saved from the fire and half-forgotten memories from childhood), and maybe that means that has a complex of some kind (and wouldn't Sammy just _love_ to tease him about _that!_), but as she sets another slice of homemade apple pie onto the table in front of him and gives his shoulder a gentle squeeze and smiles in possibly the warmest way he's ever seen, he can't bring himself to care.

The worst of all is knowing that if her two brothers find out they'll go all Guantanamo on his ass, and they probably have every right to. Cas he knows can pack a punch when he wants, even with his scrawny nerd build screaming to the contrary, and despite how many sweets Gabriel packs away in an afternoon, he's more than capable of handing Dean's ass to him on a silver-freakin'-platter.

And he would deserve it too, he knows, because whatever it is that's making the back if his neck burn with a blush and his heart do odd things against the inside of his ribs isn't because Ariel is the most beautiful girl he's ever seen (which she _is_), or because she teases and winks at him whenever they talk (because she _does_), but because he feels loved for the first time in a long time. And having a friend as good as Cas, who has nearly as many issues as Dean himself, and an almost-no-quite-family with Gabriel and Ariel and his own baby brother Sam is something he's always wanted and something he now finally has.

So, he comes back to the point he's been trying to convince himself of all morning as he sits and pretends to listen to what Sam's trying to tell him from across the table, this feeling can't be love. Not really, not romantically, because that would just be ridiculous.

"Dude, are you even listening?" Sam's voice manages to break through his thoughts, and he yanks himself back to the present with a mumbled apology as he hides behind a large bite of pie.

Cas has magically appeared in the booth beside Dean, a book open before him on the table, and the taller boy can't remember him arriving. Sam sits across from him, his story on pause until he's sure his big brother's listening, and Gabriel's nursing what's likely his second milkshake of the afternoon from in his seat to Sam's left.

"Oh, don't mind him; Gigantor," Gabe dismisses Dean with a flippant wave of his hand, "he was probably just day-dreaming about some cute waitress." Sam gives a faint snort of laughter, rolling his eyes, but Dean sees the glint in Gabriel's eyes and knows that his goose is close to being not just cooked, but deep fried in oil. Probably while it's still alive.

He swallows thickly and looks back at Sam, a faint grin tugging on the corners of his lips as way of apology. "So, you were complaining?" He prompts with a gesture for Sam to continue.

He tries to follow the flow of Sam's conversation, heaven help him he _tries_, but even though he understands the words coming out of his brother's mouth and is laughing in all the right places, his mind is elsewhere entirely. To be specific it's on the dirty blond who just slid a burger onto the table in front of Cas, grinning at his grumbled complaint because they both know he actually loves those things, and ruffling his dark hair into an even messier state than before.

She looks like Gabriel, Dean thinks as said brother asks for a side of fries to dip into his milkshake, her hair that same shade and her lips nearly always in a smile of some kind. She's shorter than her two brothers, but not drastically so, and Dean isn't sure why that fact makes his heart hammer just a little faster. Her eyes, though, are the thing that really get him. They're green, technically, nearly the same shade of his own, but then they fade into a molten gold right around the pupil. He's never seen eyes like that before, and part of him knows he'll never see another pair quite that stunning ever again.

She raises an eyebrow at his dwindling slice of pie and cocks her head off to one side in a manner so like her youngest brother that Dean has to really work at not grinning like an idiot. "You need another slice there, kiddo?"

And yeah, that was where Gabe had picked up that particular nickname from, and Dean can already feel his cheeks warming from the affection in her tone. "You don't mind?" And that's just a little bit of pie crust sticking to the back of his throat that's making it hard to breathe, not anything else.

"Not in the least." She scoops up his plate once he's taken the last bite and winks. "The usual again, kiddo, or can I get you something new?" And she tips her head to the side again, and Dean's heart makes a break for freedom through his chest for the second time this afternoon.

"Yeah, yeah, that'd be great." He manages to get out, and as soon as she's gone he's hiding behind his milkshake again, more than perfectly aware that the other three sets of eyes at the table are glued to him.

"Dude." Sam's the first to break the silence, eyebrows high on his forehead. "_Ariel?_"

"What?" Dean feigns indignation and innocence, raising his eyebrows at his brother.

Gabriel, ever the one to jump straight to the point and pretend that all that red tape that dictated what you did and did not talk about didn't even exist, rolls his eyes with a groan and fixes Dean with a look. "Give it up, bucko, we all already know you've got the hots for our sis, so _please_ stop pretending and acting like a virgin on his first date every time she smiles at you." He quirks an eyebrow upward, silencing Dean with a wave of his fingers before the other boy can argue with him. "And before you even start with the excuses, don't, because it's merely a pointless waste of time."

"Seriously," Sam backs up the elder boy with a faint smirk, "it's like you've got a neon sign over your head."

"And on your back." Cas chips in casually, and Dean knows it must be bad if _Mr. Socially Repressed_ has picked up on it. "I'm surprised it took you so long to work it out, honestly, we've known for weeks."

Dean glances around the table, taking in each expression and breaking it down carefully. Sam looks amused, although a little exasperated too, and somehow he knows that even though his baby brother will tease him about this for _years_ to come, he actually approves. Cas has his usual emotionally detached expression on his face, but Dean can see all the emotions lacking from his countenance swirling through his blue eyes. He's wary, the fingers of his right hand hovering over the corner of his book, prepared to turn the page and carry on with life unless Dean says something completely stupid and self-condemning in the next ten seconds. And apparently whatever the shorter boy was waiting for didn't happen, because he turns his gaze back to his book, turns the page, and leaves Dean with the distinct impression that he just dodged a bullet. And speaking of, Gabriel is giving him a look that could probably kill, and he can feel the normally blatant displeasure rolling across the space between them. Amber eyes glare pointedly into green for a moment before Gabe finally lets out a faint huff of breath and turned his attention back onto his milkshake.

"For the record and future reference," he says in an undertone as Ariel appears from the kitchen and starts to move their way, "_I told you so_, _that's just what you get for dating a girl out of your league_, and _break her heart and I'll break your face_." He snaps his gaze back up onto Dean as his sister puts his fries onto the table in front of him. "We clear, Winchester?"

Dean nods hurriedly just as Ariel quirks an eyebrow at them collectively and frowns slightly. "What's clear, Gabriel?"

The younger blond doesn't even bat an eyelash at the use of his full name, which is ordinarily reserved for disapproval or discipline, instead turning a mischievous smirk up towards his sister and waggling his eyebrows before replying. "It's clear Dean has a massive crush on you and needs you to let him take you out to dinner of something before he just _explodes_."

Dean decides on the spot that he's going to murder Gabriel the next chance he gets.

"Is that so?" Ariel turns his gaze onto Dean, looking him over closely, and he feels the heat rise quickly up the back of his neck. "Well, can't have that now, can we?" She winks, and the elder Winchester thinks he might actually melt his own face off from how hot it's getting. "Well I close this place up at eight. Think you can manage to take me out after?"

Dean only manages a nod, not a verbal reply, as she sets down his pie and a shot of whiskey and moves off again, leaving the boys to sit in silence for roughly ten seconds until Gabriel offers him a face-splitting smirk and a mischievous wink.

"You're welcome, Winchester."

Dean decides maybe murder is too good for Gabriel, and that maiming is probably the more fitting way to go… At least it will be after eight tonight. Informing big sisters that you maimed and/or killed their little brother was a sure-fire way to not get a second date, and Dean didn't really want to take that chance.

"Twenty bucks says he doesn't make it through dinner." Sam jumps in quickly, and Dean decides he'll maim his own little brother while he's at it.

"Done." Cas pipes up from beside him, and Dean isn't sure whether he should feel betrayed or not because of how readily the brunette took the bet, his apparent confidence in Dean's courting skills strong enough to warrant so little hesitation.

"Vultures." He mutters, downing his whiskey and then breaking into his pie, ignoring the chuckles that he can hear flitting around the table at his expense.

"We may very well be carrion birds," Cas agrees softly, eyes still on his book, "but we are also the only family you've got."

"So that means you're stuck with us," Sam adds with a huge grin, "whether you like it or not."

And Dean, honestly, loves every second of it.

* * *

_Writing for Gabriel is basically the best thing ever, and I have every intention of doing it again. X3_

_I might continue on in this AU, or go back to an actually cannon setting but still with this OC, but whatever the case, let me know what you think.  
Reviewers will be rewarded with candy from the Trickster Archangel's personal stash!  
_

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Supernatural and all related characters_ belong to: _Eric Kripke

_The song _"Accidentally in Love"_ belongs to: _Counting Crows

Ariel _belongs to: _Silver Flame Alchemist (_aka_ Me)


End file.
